Yarra Bay House, Phillip Bay, 7 August 2007, by Bar, J, courtesy of J Bar, Wikimedia Commons.
Details
Yarra Bay House, at Phillip Bay, was the site of a number of government-run children's Homes from around 1917 to the mid 1980s. It was built in 1903, originally as part of the Cable Station at La Perouse. The first children's institution at Yarra Bay House was established by the State Children's Relief Department around 1917, for state wards who were defined as intellectually handicapped. It then became La Perouse Girls Training School, as an annexe of Parramatta Training School for Girls from 1923 to 1939, then became a Truant School for Boys. In the mid 1950s, it was a boys' home, run by the Child Welfare Department. The facility was closed as a children's home in 1985.
Sources used to compile this entry: McLean, Donald, Children In Need: An account of the administration and functions of the Child Welfare Department, New South Wales, Australia: with an examination of the principles involved in helping deprived and wayward children, Government Printer, Sydney, 1955, 173 pp; Thinee, Kristy and Bradford, Tracy, Connecting Kin: Guide to Records, A guide to help people separated from their families search for their records [completed in 1998], New South Wales Department of Community Services, Sydney, New South Wales, 1998, https://clan.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/connectkin_guide.pdf.
Prepared by: Naomi Parry
Created: 23 March 2011, Last modified: 18 July 2018